Karratha and Chichester National Park

  06/07/2011
  Still not a day for beach combing, so having wrapped up the whole cultural thing yesterday, today is ornithology day! Before that a trip to the Qantas agent in town to see if they could help us change our departure date on our tickets as it had proved impossible to do on line, and  Qantas never answered the phone, then a coffee in a speedier coffee shop before making our escape from the Mall. We are much better at it these days as we only get half lost and have not misplaced the van so far!
 Half an hours drive to a picnic area beside the Maitland River called Mairees Pool. Avery nice spot with nobody else here, as we hiked along the river. This is budgerigar country , and they flock in dense packs, wizzing about at great speed. It’s fascinating  as all we used to see were solitary birds sat forlornly in cages. Shouldn’t be allowed. Saw lots of different birds but even with our bird book we couldn’t identify them all. We’ll never make twitchers!

  07/07/2011
  Yet another inclement start to the day, the temperature having plummeted to 22 degrees C!   ----and dull with it. An ideal day for a spot of vehicle maintenance, telephoning and computerating. We have now, via phone and email got the month of August sorted, as it’s the busiest month of the year in The warm North! Sorted as in places to stay in Broome in August.  Mosquito netting on 2 windows needed repairing, and all the curtains needed washing. All very boring really.

 08/07/2011
   Turned out nice again! Temp soared to 27C much more clement! Just the sort of day to sit by the riverside, fishing and contemplating. We haven’t got rods but sat by the river anyway.
  We are going bush this weekend, so a trip to the Mall for essential supplies and another trip to the travel agent. Change of ticket can be done at a cost of £150 each, plus $110 each handling fee if the travel agent does it. Why is everything so expensive!

  09/07/2011

  The plan was to leave civilisation behind for a couple of days to find peace and quiet and tranquillity, just us and the flies.  Not to be. We are 100K’s into the bush, at a campsite in Chichester National Park called Python pool by the side of Snake Creek------ the camping area being no bigger than the White Hart car park. We do have our flies, we like to call them our camp followers but we also  have 5 lots of other guests seeking quiet and tranquillity and hey have brought their own flies! Not good with only 1 long drop dunny on site!  As it gets dark the flies retire and the mossies take over. The joys of bush camping.

10/07/2011

  Python Pool is a natural spring which is also fed by run-off from the Hammersley Range during the wet season. It’s an ideal swimming hole when the weather is half decent, which it certainly hasn’t been today. It has been cloudy and windy all day and is looking decidedly wintry. After a leisurely start to the day we drove up to within 300m of the top of Mount Herbert then scrambled up to the very top to look out across the Savannah towards the Hamersley Range.  Superb views, would have been much better if the sun had shone. 

 The rest of the day we exercised our brains, doing, crosswords, target words and code words which are found in the International Express and Telegraph, papers which are available weekly in the newsagents of the bigger towns. 

  Most of our neighbours left this morning leaving their flies behind!  --but it’s O K , they are getting on very well with ours!!

 11/07/2011

   The topsy-turvy weather we are experiencing, decided to go one better last night  as storm conditions set in. Chichester National Park is mostly hill country so we were camped  quite high up, open to the elements, and as we were lashed by gales and rain we felt that we were at sea. Although the van rocked about in the wind, we were more comfortable than our neighbours who where in a 2 man tent, who must have been thinking they were going to be blown into orbit! Needless to say we were all up at first light, packing up to go. 

  We are now at sea level, on the coast at Point Samson, which looks to be a very nice place, but it too was lashed by the storm and it’s still blowing a hooley! There’s a lot of tent peg hammering going on as well as awning and canvas annexe  adjustments, just in case there is a repeat performance of last night. We came here for a few days on the beach, but it looks like the beach is coming to us.